The opening scene presents a gruesome hammer-murder of a prostitute and her customer in an unusual killer's POV (point of view) camera shot. Right after, an attractive young woman – Ellie Masters (Melody Patterson) – awakes from a nightmare and screams. She is the daughter of the murdered woman. Very soon, as she is without parents, Ellie is sent to an orphanage run by twisted Mrs. Deere (Gloria Grahame) and creepy handyman Tom Kredge (Len Lesser). They have the knack for capturing fugitives and keeping them in deep freeze, after they are dispatched by Kredge. Detective Calvin Carruthers (Vic Payback) supposedly wants to help Ellie. His motives are morally ambiguous, to say the least. Another strange dude is Mr. Mullins (Milton Selzer), a social worker who enjoys the favors from Mrs. Deere for looking the other way. A teen-aged girl is tied up in the attic and deprived of water for not folding her napkin. Meanwhile there is a strange dude with a chilling mask lurking about the place. What does he want? Does he want to kill Ellie, thinking that she saw him murder her mother, whom Ellie despised? Rapes and killings abound. So yes, it's a sick movie all-around, but quite interesting. Logic is left outside the door, but the ending is a real grabber. In short, this is a trash-lovers delight, with nary a sympathetic character. It was filmed by American International Pictures. Gloria Grahame was an actress from the 1940s to the 1980s; some of her movies are "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946), "The Bad and the Beautiful" (1952), and "Oklahoma" (1955). Melody Patterson had starred in the TV sitcom "F Troop" in 1965-1967. Len Lesser was featured in both movies and in TV, such as "Seinfeld." Vic Payback was in both the movie "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" (1974), and in the TV version, "Alice." Milton Selzer was more known for his TV appearances than film.

***SPOILERS*** With her hooker mom Edna, Louise Sherrial, and customer or John, John Durkins, bludgeoned to death with a hammer by an unseen assailant Ellie Masters, Melody Patterson, completely flipped out and ended up in the care of Mrs. Deere, Gloria Grahame, who runs an orphanage for mentally challenged & abused teenagers. In trying to get her head back together Ellie soon escapes from the orphanage only to be tracked and brought back by the understanding and kindly Det. Calvin Carruthers, Vic Taybeck. It's Det. Carruthers who takes a strong liking towards her and the problems, being an orphan who's father deserted her at childbirth, and tries to help her beyond the call of duty as a policeman or even social worker.It's back at the orphanage that Ellie runs into fellow inmate, the place is run by Mrs. Deere like a prison, Bunch, Terri Messina, who got the hots for one the boys or inmates there Walter, Ronald Taft, and feels that Ellie is trying to take the big hunk away from her. Walter for his part is secretly having an affair with Mrs. Deere who uses him to do all the heavy work, while sweaty and shirtless, at the orphanage that she provides for him. It's soon that Ellie discovers that the place is being used as a cash cow for Mrs. Deere in getting community money, at $150.00 apiece, for every orphan that's there. It's also used by her and her creepy handyman Tom, Len Lesser, in experimenting Nazi & KGB style with the orphans there in some kind of life after death on ice experiments.****MAJOR SPOILERS**** It's when too many of the orphans at the place end up missing in them being kept on ice in the orphanage meat freezer that corrupt social worker Mr. Mullins, Milton Salzer, in order to save his hide, in not noticing what was happening there in the first place, plans to have the place inspected to find out what exactly in going on there. This is a fatal mistake on Mr. Mullins part who ends up dead, with a butcher knife in his back, by handyman Tom who in return gets his from Mrs. Deere whom he was blackmailing. Now back to the star of the flick Ellie she's now targeted by Mrs. Deere in knowing too much in what's going on and has to be terminated before she can get the truth out. That's until this masked psycho shows up out of nowhere to protect her from any violence by Mrs. Deere and handyman Tom. The ending of the movie has Ellie's greatest fears realized in how her mother was killed and by whom. And even far worse the reason that the kindly and understanding Det. Carruthers was so interested in her and why he acted as her guardian angel throughout the entire movie. And even worse the blackmail scheme he dreamed up in order to keep her all too himself in not bringing up her past that she tried so hard to forget and keep secret!

Blood and Lace (1971) ** 1/2 (out of 4) This AIP thriller is one of the nastiest films you're ever going to see that got a GP rating. It really makes you wonder what the MPAA members were smoking at the time of watching this. After her prostitute mother and a client are brutally beaten to death with a hammer, teenager Ellie (Melody Patterson) goes to live at a boarding house ran by the rather sadistic Mrs. Deere (Gloria Grahame). Soon Ellie begins to fear that the man who killed her mother is now after her. BLOOD AND LACE is a pretty nasty little film that plays out more like a Hitchcock thriller than just a straight horror film. The film features some pretty memorable violence, some great performances and an all around good atmosphere, which helps overcome the flaws and make it worth viewing. What surprised me the most was how brutal some of the violence was starting off with the hammer deaths. Now, we're not talking SAW material but for 1971 it's pretty strong. There's also another scene where a boy gets his hand cut off, which looked very realistic and it's certainly something one won't forget. The performances are also great with former Oscar-winner Grahame really doing a great job in the role of one of the villains. I thought she played evil with a certain charm that really made it a fun performance to watch. Patterson is completely sympathetic in her role and she has no problem making you care about her. Len Lesser is fun as another one of the bad guys and there's even a young performance from Dennis Christopher. The film also features some beautiful cinematography, a nice music score and the atmosphere is quite dark and you can feel the coldness of the freezer that plays an important role in the film. I won't give away the ending but the final ten-minutes contain some nice suspense and great fun. BLOOD AND LACE has pretty much been forgotten over the years but it's a good little thriller that has a lot of strong stuff going for it.

After her prostitute mother and her john are beaten to death while they are asleep in bed, teen-aged Ellie Masters (Melody Patterson) is sent to an isolated orphanage run by Mrs. Deere (Gloria Grahame) and her handyman (Len Lesser).While Melody Patterson is known for being Wrangler Jane in "F Troop", she will now forever be branded in my mind as Ellie Masters. I found this film to be far better than the ratings people assign to it, and Patterson was an excellent choice as the film's star (why she no longer acts is a mystery to me).Perhaps most interesting, from a historical standpoint, is this film's impact on the slasher subgenre. I generally like to think of "Black Christmas" as the first true slasher film, but there were elements here that had "slasher" written all over them. The film in general is not a slasher film, but the opening scene with the "hammer cam"? Heck, it was very much like the beginning of "Halloween". Coincidence or inspiration?